After Vijay, Dhanush and Vijay Sethupathi test the waters of fan power
Welfare camps, district appointments, carefully worded public speeches fuel speculation about their next moves, though neither has announced a political plunge
In a state where the screen has long doubled as a political stool, the 2026 Assembly verdict has rewritten the textbook. Actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) ended nearly six decades of DMK–AIADMK alternation. He was sworn in as Chief Minister in May.
That success has sent a current through Kollywood. Two names now sit at the centre of the speculation: Dhanush, who is sending out successive signals on social media and at public events, and Vijay Sethupathi, who is tightening his fan organisation.
Vijay is the first film star since MG Ramachandra (MGR) to convert a fan movement into real power at the first attempt. That is why every welfare camp, every new coordinator, and every unanswered question now reads like a political signal.
Dhanush’s ‘fan’ fare
Dhanush has not declared a party or named a symbol, nor has he named an ideology, but he has introduced a flag. More importantly, his fan clubs have been recast as a welfare network. District secretaries have been appointed. Welfare events have been held in Madurai, Chennai and other districts.
In July, at a blood-donation camp organised by his fans, Dhanush told the crowd that such unity held power, and that the power needed a purpose beyond audio launches and fan meets. “Help families in your own streets,” he said. “Make me proud through service.” The speech went viral. Comparisons with Vijay’s pre-TVK years were immediate.
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Sources close to him have been more candid than the actor himself. They say he is interested, but not immediately. He is at the peak of his career and is weighing the costs, they say. Considering the next Assembly election is five years away, he has time, and he’s reading the map, they add.
His father, filmmaker Kasthuri Raja, when asked earlier this year whether his son would enter politics, chose the middle path. “If he starts a party, he does; if not, he doesn’t,” he said. “Anyone has the right to enter politics.”
Political playbook
This week the speculation sharpened. After receiving two honours at the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat — Best Tamil Film for Raayan, which he directed and starred in, and a Special Mention for Captain Miller, where he did the title role — Dhanush returned to Chennai.
A reporter asked: “When will you start your political party?” Dhanush smiled, grinned, and walked away without a word. Fans read the silence as confirmation.
The public choreography continues. Dhanush opens and closes many of his appearances with “Om Namashivaya.” On Friday (September 25), he launched shooting for his 56th film, codenamed D56, with a pooja at the Maranadu Karuppanaswamy Temple in Sivaganga, near Madurai.
Saffron tilt?
At the Sivaganga event, crowds poured in and Dhanush offered an 18-foot sickle to the deity, a traditional vow at that shrine, and told fans to enjoy the feast. “We’ll meet soon at the OM audio launch,” he added. Om - Chapter 1: Udhiram: The Blood Wood is a bilingual film starring Dhanush, Mammootty, Sai Pallavi, Sreeleela, Naseeruddin Shah, and Indrans.
On Saturday, he was at the Palani hill temple with his family. Temple visits, village events, fan dinners, welfare camps…the grammar is familiar to anyone who watched Vijay’s years before 2024.
Some voices allege a BJP tilt and treat the National Awards as political validation. There is no public evidence of a party alliance.
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Actor Vishal, who once tried the electoral door himself, offered a careful welcome: “If Dhanush chooses public service, congratulations; Tamil cinema would lose an excellent actor and director.”
Fan club to grass roots
If Dhanush is studying the map, Vijay Sethupathi, popularly known as ‘VJS’, is drawing the organisation chart. Earlier this week, he appointed P Prasad as chief coordinator of the All India Vijay Sethupathi Welfare Movement. The brief: coordinate fan-club office-bearers across the state, strengthen district and zonal units, appoint new administrators, intensify membership drives, and run the organisation under the movement’s rules.
Tamil papers asked the same question in their headlines: is the next politician being prepared?
VJS’s public image helps the rumour. “Makkal Selvan” (‘people’s treasure’) is an everyman brand. Unlike Vijay and Dhanush, he comes from a non-film background, and talks in an unpolished, self-depreciating manner. The crowds see him as approachable. Some observers compare that early warmth to the late Vijayakanth before he became a full-time politician.
Bigg Boss politics
Earlier this month, VJS walked into a political storm on the small screen. Hosting a weekend episode of Bigg Boss Tamil 10, he told a contestant that making reckless promises, blaming the opposition and running away from problems is not leadership. “It is deception,” he said, adding a warning that the throne will fall if the leader fails.
He named no party or person, but TVK’s supporters took offence. A TVK MLA demanded an apology and threatened blockades. The channel and VJS later clarified that the remarks were confined to the Bigg Boss house.
Also read | Tamil Nadu bypolls will put political defections to the voter test
The appointment of a statewide coordinator after that controversy has only thickened the plot. Strengthening fans at district and zonal levels is exactly how Vijay’s old Vijay Makkal Iyakkam was professionalised before the TVK was born.
Follow the leader
Neither Dhanush nor VJS has announced a party, or even openly shared political inclinations, but people suspect the machinery is being oiled.
Is there a queue behind the winner? Apart from MGR, Jayalalithaa moved from the silver screen to Tamil Nadu politics and eventually to the CM post. Kamal Haasan tried electoral politics before taking up a Rajya Sabha MP post backed by the DMK.
Obviously, Vijay’s victory did not invent actor-politics in Tamil Nadu. But, his quick ascent offers a script that Dhanush and Vijay Sethupathi could be considering.
